Once Spencer was in bed, I put on my PJs and curled up on the couch with a blankie hoping my throat would feel better soon. Within the hour, my right ear had began to throb. The pain began to quickly grow worse and worse. Todd was sitting at the kitchen table and asked me if he could do anything. I answered no... at the time.
About 9:15pm, the pain had increased to a level that was almost intolerable. On a scale of 1-10, my pain was reaching bouts of 8's. I told Todd to phone the BC NurseLine for some advice on how to treat the pain and symptoms. By this time, my teeth and cheek bone had begun to hurt and part of my tougue was numb. Not a fun feeling! The nurse on the phone recommended that I go to the ER. So Todd grabbed Spencer from his bed, put on some socks, his coat and his coat and loaded us all into the Jeep.
We arrived at the local ER in town about 3 minutes later to find no one on staff. We used the phone in the hospital foyer to call the Fernie hospital. Todd spoke to a nurse and they dispatched a local nurse and on-call doctor to the hosital. The nurse arrived first within about 10 minutes. She hooked me up to the usual equipment; pressure cuff and oxygen monitoring machine. She took my vitals and asked me about my symptoms. Within 10 minutes, the doctor arrived and he looked in my ears and throat. He indicated there was a raging infection behind my eardrum causing all my pain and numbness.
He prescribed me some steroid ear drops, Tylenol 3's for the pain, a high dose of antibiotics and a shot of a pain medication. He dropped the steroid drops in my ear, stuffed it with cotton and then the nurse gave me the shot of pain killers in my butt. They gave me a dose of antibiotics and Tylenol's and sent me on my way.
The pain began to dull on the way home. Finally some relief!! I now feel high from the Tylenol's and can't seem to settle down to sleep. I have the best husband though... for taking me in to the ER with a 3 year old in tow even if he knew he had to go to bed so he could get up for work in the morning. Spencer was drowsey enough enough to play like a good boy in the ER with Daddy.
The doctor's said that my eardrum might burst due to the infection but he said if it does, that it sould heal up just fine. I'm supposed to go into the clinic again next week if it does. I'm kind of hoping it does so that I can have some real relief of the pain. The Tylenol 3's are just starting to wear off a bit and the pain is "just there" in the back ground now. Sure hope I can get some sleep. I'm exhausted.
Gotta go. Hope you had a good night's rest!
